Category: Adventures & Travel

Just over two months ago, I made my way to Washington, D.C. on a train alone.

It always amazes me how life throws you bones. I won passes to a yoga conference in Arlington and I truly don’t even recall entering the raffle. The email appeared on an August day and it was just what I needed once October rolled around.

This fall proved to be one that I bumped up against my edges more times than I felt comfortable with. With two major transitions for my children (to Kindergarten and Preschool) coupled with Sean adding a part-time writing job that involved deadlines to his already full-time workload, I felt crumbly and crackly. Too many transitions for just a few short weeks. But we made it through!

Here’s what I can remember from my adventure…

When I’m out of the house and out of my norm (In this season of my life, I spend most of my time taking care of little children at home and working at home), I marvel at how many people I share this world with. SERIOUSLY how MANY people. I feel like I’m seeing with new eyes when I’m out and alone. A major reframe.

How have I missed all of this activity?

Observing people in motion, in a hurry, in a flurry…on their way.

I remember vividly feeling this way once I started working in the city again after my maternity leave – as if I’d been in the slow lane and somehow was propelled on a highway but I was in a wagon.

Where’s everybody going? I thought.

I live in a bubble of simplicity and all I long for is simplicity yet I don’t even realize that’s my life until I step into the complex web that is the world.

Here’s a note I wrote to sean from the trip:

Dear Sean,

I’m terribly sorry for being so selfish & so dramatic.

I really miss you guys. It’s excruciating to be away & has been all day but I’m sure this is healthy for all of us. I love you!

After my SEPTA/Amtrak adventure, I arrived in Washington’s Union Station and hopped the D.C. city bus to Adams Morgan. My dad never drove when we were kids, so it usually feels most natural to hop on a crowded city bus and settle in for the ride. I always think of it as the best tour in a new city – the windows are so BIG on the bus!

I was super nerdy and excited as I entered the High Road hostel with my yoga mat. Everyone was so youthful and hipster. I didn’t care how much I didn’t fit in! I checked in and headed out for dinner and beer with my journal and I adored every second. I love dining out alone and I always thought that was the best part of work travel.

I came back to the hostel to snuggle up alone on my top bunk, read and write. It was 8pm on a bustling street in Adams Morgan and I had a feeling I’d need my earplugs.

High Road Hostel

I was the first one asleep and the first one to leave my 6 person dorm at 6am the next day. I walked to a breakfast spot and jumped over trash and rats from the partying that ended just a few hours prior. I squealed and gagged. It was disgusting. I started to miss home and thought of my treasured early morning ritual in my little piece of the planet.

After coffee and a breakfast I’d rather forget, I checked in with my people who were getting ready to hit the soccer fields for the Saturday morning games. Ping…awww man. I missed them.

Hopped my ride to Arlington where I spent the day with yogis in a university setting and also had my photos taken! Part of the winning the trip was winning a yoga photo shoot! It was too much fun.

But most importantly, I remember the clarity I got just by being away from my normal life for 24 hours.

: )

I spent three uninterrupted hours quietly making my way back to Philadelphia. Thinking about my time away and listening to two of my favorite podcasts. The first one was this one. And the second one was this one.

That second one really made me remember what I was thinking about the night prior – how much privilege I have had my entire life. Stories like these make me motivated to keep going and when I think it’s too much, to simply remember all of the resources that I have access to, to use them and be grateful for them, but to also be the resource for someone else.

Everything that had worn me down in the weeks leading up to the trip still remained once I’d returned home, but everything inside of me had shifted.

“Willing to relocate,” was a phrase I put at the bottom of my resume in English class when I was 16. My mom and sister thought it was hilarious, but I was not joking. I’ve always been a wanderer, and if it’s not in the physical sense, it’s through hearing other people’s stories of their travels, books and dreams. Sean, my partner in this life, has the same desire to wander, it’s something that we share and talk about often. We enjoy taking adventures together, just the two of us, and it has been a while.

Walking to dinner!!!

I never imagined we’d be ready to go anywhere without the kids until we were finally ready. Three nights in Mexico (!!) alone! It was a bit surreal, so so fun and everything I’d dreamed it would be.

I wouldn’t say we traveled often before kids, but for a while we took some pretty great trips during our dating years and early marriage. I’d studied in Italy and Sean was later stationed in Italy and Germany with the Air Force so we got to spend some time abroad together. Then in the 6 months before I was pregnant with Brady, we got to travel to St. John for my best friend’s wedding and then we did a 2 week journey from London to Rome.

Then we had kids. : )

Grand Princess Sunset Resort

I’m an advocate of traveling with kids if that’s what you want to do. And it has been what we have chosen some of the time. We’ve ventured to Portland, Oregon, the Jersey Shore, Charleston and the Hudson Valley. Nothing too wild, but just enough for us to satisfy our cravings to discover new land, food and people.

We both love to travel and really enjoy it together so to be able to take a mini adventure with just each other was a huge gift (thank you to Sean’s parents and my mom).

I truly enjoy travel research and poking around to find a location and a place to sleep that is unique and fits our tastes. I like to build trips for our family. So when we decided that we may be ready to spend 3 nights away without the kids (I originally proposed 2 nights and Sean countered with, “If we say three you have a deal.”) I got to work searching any and all direct “islandy” flights from Philadelphia. Our tropical destination awaits!

But then reality set in and the prices of airfare were nowhere near in our price range. I searched and searched and used all my travel notes and favorite resources to no avail. I concluded the search and told Sean, “If we’re meant to go, the right trip will find us.”

The beach!!!

I kid you not, that evening we were watching something on TV and a commercial for Apple Vacations came on. I don’t remember the specifics, but the ad was something about $550 per person for 3 or 4 nights in Cancun including airfare, lodging, food, airport transfers and taxes. We paused the TV and were like, “Huh? How can this be real???” Well, I opened up the vacation search again and after some quick emails with Apple Vacations we were booked and going to Riviera Maya for 3 night getaway!!!!

Our contact at Apple was amazing, the process was ridiculously easy, the price was great and the trip was outstanding.

We flew Frontier (no complaints, actually really enjoyed it because the plane was new and the crew was super friendly), we stayed at the Grand Princess Sunset Resort in Riviera Maya. It was picture perfect. I honestly didn’t expect to be wowed because of the price, but we totally were. The grounds were gorgeous, the rooms were clean and pleasant and the staff was great. For an all-inclusive, the food was good, never great, but that is what I expected.

If you are considering this resort, here are my notes. If not, skip this paragraph.

If you go with kids, there is a kid building with pool and cute little kid lounge chairs. They have push cars to borrow and other fun things. Kids are welcome everywhere but this area really caters to families. We checked it out for future reference. We also talked to families and they all loved it.

The Platinum rooms are closest to the beach and are an upgrade that we wanted but were not available. Honestly, I’m not sure if it’s even necessary because our room category (Junior Suite Deluxe) was perfect as it included the extra restaurants.

There is a shuttle that takes you to Playa Del Carmen daily for $4 per person each way.

One night a week they bring in local merchants and have a market in the hotel square. It was so cool.

Don’t go to the steakhouse. We enjoyed the Mexican Restaurant and La Fleur.

They stock your fridge daily with plenty of bottled water (and beer).

At the pool bar, try the Alexander if you like Baileys, try the Mango Tango if you like rum.

Dance at the nightclub.

The first two days were rainy and it was still a party. We went swimming in the rain, drank at the pool bar (excellent people watching) and went dancing at the resort night club. The energy at the resort was awesome and everyone was so excited to be on vacation.

Nearly everything went right for us on the trip and it was so fun to just sit and talk with my best friend for hours uninterrupted.

I wrote this a few months ago and forgot about it. My memory lost all these details already, so happy I saved them here. Enjoy and let me know what treasures you find if you go hunting!

“Now I know why you said this would be a treasure hunt,” said my five year old son, Brady, as we made our way through the Bryn Athyn Thrift Store on a Thursday afternoon.

We went for pajamas and left with treasures (and one pair of pajama pants for the little man). A win all around. For some reason, Meadow insisted on taking her shoes off multiple times while we were shopping in the big old barn. I’ll never know why. There are feasts for the eyes everywhere you turn. The decor was so fun to look at with old tools hanging on the walls and historic photos of the area and barn nearly everywhere. The kid/toys area was the most fun.

The Barn Thrift Shop

Anyone who knows me, most likely knows that Brady is quite arguably the most dedicated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fan. Our neighbor across the street kindly gave Brady some old TMNT action figures that were her son’s when she was cleaning out the basement. These are the best kind of toys! They hold stories and memories and he still plays with them more than a year later.

Whoa!

Recently he expressed that he wanted to complete his “old school classic” turtle collection. I talked about how they don’t make those guys anymore but perhaps we could go on a treasure hunt to different thrift stores and see what we might find. He was intrigued. But I could tell he didn’t really know what I was alluding to.

So today at the thrift shop we found the toy area and there was a full bin of action figures (!). Although we did not find the “old school classic” Leonardo that was first on his list, we did find some more recent happy meal TMNT toys and his face LIT UP! For $.50 each, he got Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael happy meal toys without the meal! It was so exciting!

TMNT Treasure: FOUND

Meadow found two new babies for $1 each and I got a new shirt! Walking through all the dishes and books and replacement coffee pots was so much fun. The craziest thing is that I never even saw or heard of the happy meal toys Brady scored today but when we got home he told me, “You know mommy it’s a funny thing. I thought of those happy meal turtles this morning and was hoping I would get them.”

I mapped out this itinerary for our family when we had an unusually warm Saturday in February. It’s a bit aggressive yet can easily be modified. We did 1, 5, 6 and 7 on our list and it was perfect! It’s a walking tour concentrated in the Old City section of Philadelphia. We found street parking on N. 3rd street, which was ideal!

(1) Start at the Betsy Ross House (on Arch Street between 2nd & 3rd). Sometimes they’ll have demonstrations or storytelling in the courtyard. On the day we went they were demonstrating the making of drinking chocolate and selling/sampling it! They were showing how they broke down the cocoa beans and I was super interested since cocoa butter is my favorite ingredient to work with in my products. It was amazing. I was way more interested than the kids.

Adults are $5 and kids are $4. We didn’t do the audio tour. It’s super tiny in there and very narrow, but beautiful and worth seeing. It’s said to be haunted upstairs. While in the basement, I learned that Ben Franklin’s sister was a soapmaker, awwww, yay! Me too. : ) The historical actor explained that they used to put liquid lye in the laundry as well as urine. Hmmm, made me feel much more grateful for my trader joe’s lavender liquid laundry soap.

Betsy Ross House

(2) Head East on Arch, left on 2nd and you’ll see Elfreth’s Alley on your right. Here you can walk our nation’s oldest residential street. It’s FREE to wander and there are beautiful pictures to be taken here.

(3) Go back the way you came, past Betsy Ross’ House and between 4th & 5th Streets (on Arch) you’ll see Christ Church Burial Groundwhere you can see Ben Franklin’s grave. You can view from the street for FREE or pay the admission to walk around inside the burial ground.

(4) Continue down Arch and turn left on 5th, walk one block and you’ll be at 5th and Market to visit the National Museum of American Jewish History. I was lucky enough to see this museum as it was being built and again soon after. This page is helpful for families.

(5) From there, head East on Market (away from 5th) towards 4th Street. Here you’ll find Franklin Court – museum and printing office . This is actually my favorite historical attraction in Philadelphia! I discovered it when I had to give a historic tour as a student in college and fell in love. You can stroll through the courtyard and see the “ghost houses” which represent where Franklin’s house stood. You can look through the glass below the ground and see different parts of the basement. There’s also a museum that has a fee but the printing office is FREE. When they are open you can see people demonstrating the printing press and it’s fun to see inside. There’s also a working post office on the Market Street side where you can mail your letter with a B FREE FRANKLIN ink stamp! A friend mailed her wedding invitations from here, I thought that was such a cool idea.

Carpenters’ Hall

(6) When you exit Franklin Court, exit on the Chestnut Street side (opposite from where you entered on Market Street). Head across the street to Carpenters’ Hall (it’s FREE). A historical building which held the First Continental Congress and Franklin’s Library. I LOOOOVE anything that has to do with a library. I know. Apparently there’s a “treasure hunt” in there – you can tell the kids to find all the Carpenters’ Co. Emblems. Apparently there’s 5. I found 2.

Greenspace Old City Philadelphia

One of my favorite things about Carpenters’ Hall is the path leading up to it and the grounds around it. There’s green space and we just walked down and parked the stroller and let the kids run around in the huge lawn. It’s so perfect. Once that’s done, head across the street to…

(7) The Little Lion– it’s on the corner of 3rd and Market Streets. Super cute, great food and beer and I love the decor. Reservations recommended. I’ve been here 3 times and every time the service was outstanding, as well as the food. All I’ll say is sweet potato fries.

On our walk back to our car this little shop caught my eye and now they are carrying my lip balm! I love it in there and it’s very fun to poke around. I picked up a soap when I dropped off my lip balm to them, I love to support other local makers.

Philadelphia Independents

So that was our Old City adventure in a nutshell. The Kids loved it and Brady asked for days when we were going back. If you go, enjoy!!

On February 24, 2017, Zen Parenting Radio, a podcast on self-awareness and how it relates to parenting, held their second annual conference just outside Chicago. Last year, I decided to fly half-way across the country and be away from my family for a night to be a part of this amazing event.

Todd & Cathy Adams are the hosts of the weekly podcast as well as the conference. I stumbled across their work when my back spazzed out and I literally could not carry my baby a while back. I called in my best friend, Emily, who happened to be off for a couple of days came and stayed with us to help out. A true friend. During this visit, she explained podcasts to me and told me what they were all about.

Having my back “out” for a week and not being able to care for my kids alone felt horrible, after all, it’s my full-time job. After I was better and life was getting back to normal, I wondered why the heck that happened to me. Stress and shallow breathing are the physical answers I came up with but the behind the scenes reason is what I was looking for.

Fast forward a few months and I was a HUGE fan of Zen Parenting Radio. I never would have found them (or possibly would not have found them til much later) if it weren’t for those unplanned days of chatting and hanging out with Emily.

I consider Todd and Cathy to be incredibly powerful teachers in my life. I learn SO MUCH from their shows and found in a short time that we have much in common. I felt connected to something by being a fan of their show. So much so that I decided to fly from Philadelphia to Chicago to hear them speak.

I also traveled to the meeting location of the first La Leche League gathering while I was at the conference. An organization that is dear to my heart started just outside Chicago. I wanted to see where it all began.

Some of my notes while at the show can serve as a testament to the feeling and the vibe that they created.

Something to practice: If we are going to shift the dynamic in our home, we have to make the change.

Dr. Shefali Tsbary was the keynote speaker at the conference last year and her talk was as good as her book, The Conscious Parent. I was not disappointed. Something she made me think about is “Guilt is another form of ego.” Hmmm, that was so interesting. I’m a big guilt partaker. I also learned a lot about energy and how engaging with certain energies grows them and how to redirect your focus to dissipate certain things.

Her new book at the time, The Awakened Family, was what she was pitching and I was drawn in by her premise to make an “Internal commitment not to walk the mainstream’s ways of parenting.”

She asked us to ask ourselves if we could see our children for who they really are. Not who we want or who others want them to be. Makes me also ask myself, can I do that for myself? For all the people in my life?

Jennifer Weigel had me on the edge of my seat in her breakout session where she talked mainly about ituition and developing it. I had NO IDEA that is what the session would be about and I was riveted. I’d felt incredibly grateful to be there by accident because I learned so much and her talk gave me tools to explore our innate intuitive nature. Two tools in particular were energy cleansing and how to become grounded and “turn on your heart light” as she said to diffuse certain energies. I found this particularly helpful for screaming toddlers. Mind blown.

At a time when uninterrupted sleep was a foreign concept and connecting with like-minded people interested in bringing awareness to their parenting felt like a dream – I found this event. Or it found me. Either way, the energy that radiated from the experience was at such a high vibration, so fun and positive. I learned so much about how to be open and to be me and be aware and available so that I can be the best me to be the best parent (I can be). Not saying perfect, that doesn’t exist. Or everything is already perfect. Depends on which lens you’re viewing this whole thing called life through.

I wasn’t there there this time around but enjoyed hearing the updates on their 2017 event. I’m hopeful that I will make my way another one of their gatherings in the future.

Something I have right now is flexibility. Tons of it. We can fill our days pretty much with whatever we want, working around a small preschool schedule. Adventures are always calling and I’m frequently on the hunt for something fun to discover with the kids, however, whenever I google kids activities, I always feel empty inside. The usual kids museums or activity centers come up in the search and that’s about it. I’m always left wanting more. And frankly, a little baffled. I do love those places, and we’ve been to most of them, but that’s just one small bucket of ideas.

Kids stuff doesn’t have to be limited to “Kids only” stuff. Kids are real people that want to interact with the world and be intrigued and challenged. Their brains are literally wired for discovery and it’s my job to provide the path. Here’s three kid-friendly ways to spend a morning or afternoon. These are all local to Philadelphia/Montgomery County, PA.

This beautiful campus is super close to our house and it’s always felt a little mysterious because it’s behind large walls. We made our way one chilly February day when everyone was bouncing off the walls. They had an exhibit by Temple University students and an Art trail to walk, all for free. SOLD.

Running off into the field for ninja turtle battles

The exhibit was entitled Surface Tensions Wall Projections by Temple University Graduate Film & Media Arts and it was a feast for the eyes. When we entered the exhibit hall, the lights were out and projections of lights and videos flashed about on the walls. The looks on the kids faces were priceless. Meadow, holding her baby doll, looked up in wonder. Brady, eyes wide, said, “What the HECK is this place?” “Where areeee weeee?” asked Meadow. I told them and they were fascinated, albeit a bit confused.

We wandered about and took it in. The work was interesting and the kids reaction to it was even more fun to watch. And this is what I love about art! “Who made this?” They exclaimed in wonder? “Why?” The questions were hilarious. We had a blast. Then we wandered around the building and found the fabric workshop and were invited in where Brady asked some questions. The bright and beautiful room was even warmer with the welcoming teacher who didn’t seem bothered by curious children. The bathrooms were great too, big enough for a stroller and clean – that’s how I evaluate most places.

Little wooden booth we discovered on the trail

We made our way to the art trail where the questions continued. A field large enough for ninja turtle battles, a stage to continue our battle and little wooden houses and huts to tuck our bodies in and pretend we lived in. There was no end in sight for the fun and it was all free. Our moods shifted from being out in February winds and that was part of the goal in discovering that trail.

This place is amazing. It’s a FREE museum in Burholme Park (northeast section of Philadelphia/Fox Chase). I have very fond memories of being here while I was a kid and kinda forgot about it until recently. It’s only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays so plan for that but it’s so worth the visit!

It’s both a museum and library full of family heirlooms and collections of the Ryerss Family from their travels around the world. We got a children’s coloring/activity book in the library when we were there and it says, “Visiting the Ryerss Museum is like taking a trip around the world.” I could not agree more!

The first floor has the parlor and dining room setup so you can see what it was like when they lived there. Little dolls and tea sets caught Meadow’s eye and I explained that you can not go under red ropes in museums. Just as soon as the words left my lips she looked and me and proceeded to go right under the red rope towards the Victorian tea set. Note to self: explain museum etiquette more clearly.

Dining Room

The back parlor was cozy and dark and explained the family’s Turkish corner. Have you heard of this? It amazed me! The exhibit rooms housed Buddhas, shoes, seashells and swords. Brady was engaged. I commented on how impressed I was that he was behaving so well and he said, rather seriously, “Well I’m busy. I’m doing the scavenger hunt.” We got a scavenger hunt worksheet in the library before we toured the house, it was great for the kids. Nothing fancy, just images of several statues that they had to look for.

Scavenger hunt, very serious

We ended in the library where there are kids tables and coloring sheets. I had some questions about the dollhouses I saw as a kid but seemed to be missing from the exhibit hall. Apparently Fairmount Park claimed them as they didn’t belong to the Ryerss Family, but to a neighbor. BUMMER – they were my absolute favorites and I could not wait to see them after all these years. The library is a real library and you are welcome to borrow books if you live close by.

They also do kids activity days and flea market events at the museum. Don’t forget to walk around to the front porch and you’ll pass their pet cemetery on your way. Victorian porches steal my heart and they really help me imagine the time period when I’m on one.

Have you ever heard of Ikea? That’s a joke. Of course you have. Well, it’s a really fun place for kids and not because they have a play area that you can leave your kids at (we’ve yet to utilize that feature but it does look fun in there). It’s literally a HUGE indoor playground. We love to go and wander, stock up on candles and pretend we live in the little fake living rooms.

The cafe can be accessed via shortcut as soon as you enter (at the Conshohocken location) and it’s right next to the children’s department. We’ll go on a Tuesday, I’ll get a veggie/hummus wrap or whatever and the kids meals are both FREE. And you get a free coffee if you have their “Family” card. Plus they just got a new cafe machine so it makes lattes! I’m not sure if this is permitted but I bring my latte to the children’s area and sip it leisurely while the kids take their shoes off and roll around in the beds. I know. I know. I told them not to but they don’t really listen sometimes so whatever.

Meadow playing at Ikea

By the time we get home, we’re all exhausted from Ikea, we relax and then I make dinner. Day planned. 🙂

Now pick one and go explore!

The possibilities for fun are endless when you’re a stay-at-home-parent. Unless you’re having a bad day, then it feels impossible to plan an adventure (for me, at least). So I keep a list of fun ideas for each season handy for days when we want to go out and about but don’t have much money to spend or for days when we just NEED to get out of the house.

When my oldest was in preschool one morning last week, me and my youngest, Meadow, went over to Be Well Cafe in Bryn Athyn. It’s simply adorable there. They are in a new space, a few doors down from their previous location, and the energy and flow in there are invigorating! I can grab a tea and get a little treat for Meadow for $5 while we sit and enjoy and chat.

be well bakery and cafe

The best thing about the new location is that they have an adorable play space for little ones complete with a wall chalkboard, kitchen, books and action figures. Different toys = happy kids. It gets crowded almost always, but that’s ok. After we had some fun we hopped in the car for a 2 minute drive to the Huntingdon Valley Library where they (obviously) have a beautiful book selection, but OH MY, the toys! Full size wooden kitchen, dollhouse, giant trucks and more. Meadow made me lunch 5 times at the library kitchen and it was delicious. They have all the fun ingredients – wooden jars with removable lids and pretend milk cartons! I sat at the kid table and soaked in the sunshine by the huge window. It made me smile.

The only problem was the not wanting to leave. It was the first time I was late for a preschool pickup! Eeeek.

Huntingdon Valley Library

Some of our other local frugal favorites in Montgomery County, PA include:

Briar Bush Nature Center – Free for Abington residents, very small fee for others. Live turtles! Snakes! Real bugs! Trails to explore and a bird watching house that is creepy in a fun way (at least to me). Clean bathrooms. They offer affordable camp options and fun looking birthday parties (neither of which we have experienced yet). Of note, I did not find the trails to be stroller friendly, so pack or borrow a baby carrier.

Meadowbrook Farm – This tiny little gem is one of my FAVORITE places on earth. I love to just visit and explore the grounds and the garden center. This is FREE, parking is easy and once you park you get a little red plant wagon to pull around for fun! We don’t usually buy plants (more on that later)…well ok it’s later, I need a lot of help keeping plants alive. But we LOVE them! A magical path of wonderful greens and flowers leads you to a crossroad, and you decide your fate. Travel right for the garden center and explore the nooks and crannies of the greenhouse full of hanging terrariums, cute gifts and creative pots and plants OR turn left and explore the historical grounds and see fountains and ferns and statues and lily pads! Whichever you choose, you will not be disappointed.

Meadowbrook Bird Sanctuary – This is across the street from Meadowbrook Fam. This is a slice of peace. Here you find a small patch of earth full of winding trails and cozy benches. Little birdhouses and a children’s garden. The link is old but the pictures look just like I remember. We usually bring a picnic lunch. The kids love to chase each other with the butterfly nets from the children’s garden.

Library Cultural Passes – This simply makes me giddy!!! Many of the libraries in Montgomery County have passes to awesome places (that cost a lot of dollars to get in) for FREE! Yep! We are kinda like library groupies. We are ALWAYS at one of our local branches. Lingering. Jumping around. Occasionally we read there but the kids really like to frolic and we leave with huge stacks of books that we read at home. My mom banned me from the library when I was younger because I’d get a million books and apparently lots of late fines. I still get tons of books today but I’m much more organized about renewing them.

I hope this inspires some frugal fun with your little one! Depending on your interests, these could even be fun for a solo-self-care quiet day alone or a sweet date with someone you love.

Traveling with small children is insanity in the making, yet I love it. Well, I love travel and I have kids that I love, so that equals loving traveling with small children in my head. The first time we took Brady across the country on an airplane I had a panic attack in the bathroom and sent frantic messages during the trip to my mom and sister that he would not listen to anything I said. He was 18 months old. Ha, it’s par for the course.

Since then, we’ve sat out on a few vacations and I’ve gotten a little more savvy with my research and planning (built in down time and space for kids to run is hugely important for our family).

Here are my notes and tips from our family vacation we took June 2016 where we road-tripped to the Hudson Valley, NY and rented a cozy cottage in the country. Every family flows differently, this is a snapshot of our “flow.” Enjoy!!!

The house we rented was perfect for our family of four. I loved it so much when we arrived that I cried. I could not believe we got to stay there for a week!!! It was complete with cozy nooks, window seats, books galore, games, kids toys, gorgeous views of the meadow behind the house and comfy beds.

I loved drinking coffee in the morning in this house and the coziest table was in the kitchen that looked out the window. It was perfect for dreaming. Nikki, the house owner, was so hospitable and we even got to meet her one day when she had to repair the swing in the yard. Her design touches were so inviting and enjoyable.

Cozy morning cartoons.

The view from our kitchen window.

The kids checking out “their” room.

Trampoline fun in the yard.

More yard fun with daddy.

Cozy table in the kitchen where I wrote and dreamed one morning.

Meadow painting in the kitchen.

The last night at the house.

♡Fun things that I researched in the area. Time noted is drive time from Red Hook, the town our house was in.♡

What we did:

↠Greig Farm (5 minutes away). They had pick your own fruit, we picked strawberries. BBQ truck was cool (pictured below) and there are goats to feed with a cute shop where we got great local syrup and jam to bring home. They also have a Saturday market that we didn’t get to.

↠Poets Walk Park (in Red Hook). 2 miles of trails, we allowed 2 hours at least. Breathtaking Hudson River Views, bring water! A dreamy place with benches to read and think.

↠Montgomery Place (in Red Hook). Recommended by our Airbnb host, Nikie, “Historic Hudson Valley site. Beautiful park and spectacular waterfalls. Very nice hike.” These grounds were breathtaking. Gross bugs by the water but we had fun exploring, sitting on the porch and taking in the falls.

↠Village of Rhinebeck Has many kid-friendly restaurants, shopping, Sunday am farmers market (10-2). I went to the farmers market and it was worth the special trip but parking was crazy hard. Town is adorable but all the shops close early. Makes for peaceful strolls down the street, but would have liked to browsed after dinner.

↠Town of Woodstock -Would have loved to had more time here. We didn’t have a plan and were hungry so that’s always a lethal combo but we went to the local pizza shop and had beer and pizza and the world was ok again. We had new “toys” and markers for the kids in our bags. Yay, us! We saw a community drum circle on the main street and felt very “Woodstock” to me. I wanted to tell everyone to hold on while I snuck in a yoga class, but that obviously never happened. Made our way to Opus 40 it was really cool and different, great for adults and kids.

Lunch spot in Red Hook.

Poet’s Walk, Where the cranberry fight took place.

Poet’s Walk

Lake Taghkanic State Park

Lake Taghkanic State Park – beach!

Exploring Montgomery Place…

Montgomery Place views

Sawkill Farm Store – where I got to talk soap techniques with the shop keeper!

Woodstock, NY

My travel “journal” is below and is basically an assortment of phrases and words that I write down each day on vacation. I’ve surrendered to the fact that I don’t really write much on vacation but want to so badly. So I bottle up a few words, to me, the only words that matter. These may not make much sense but you get the idea!

Monday, June 13, 2016 Poets walk park. Kids fighting over cranberries. Meadow in the meadow. Dead mouse on trail. Long meadow nap. Brady and I found play doh in the house. Trampoline and swing fun in the yard. Snake! Dinner at Terrapin in Rhinebeck. So good and fun! Kids were awesome at super fancy restaurant. Ice cream. “Hey! How’d the moon get here?” Turtle batters on the street.

I hope this inspires your next family adventure! xo

Not driving until 28 has really made me who I am today. First of all, I am forever grateful to all the loved ones that have picked me up in the rain, and even in the sunshine, so that I didn’t have to walk. To my mom and sister and husband and friends that have gone out of their way to get me on the way to an adventure or who have come to visit me at my house because I couldn’t get to their house via regional rail. I know it wasn’t always convenient for everyone to go out of their way to get me, but in a way, it made us all spend more time together – which is kinda cool. Sean and I have always gone to the food store together, I got to spend extra time with my mom when I was pregnant because she would drive me to and from the train on her way to and from work, and that semester when my sister and niece met me at the train station after work and drove me to class each Wednesday was so fun because seeing them was always the highlight of my day.

Most people were shocked to learn that I didn’t drive over the years. “How do you do things?” They’d ask. Sometimes I had to be creative (like the giant red shopping cart when we lived in center city, or bags over my shoes, or extra shoes,etc) and other times I was really lucky to have a loved one help me out. I may not have contributed my time as a driver, but I like to think I contribute in other ways like providing entertainment, bringing a treat, buying coffee, or telling funny stories (mainly stories that I acquired while riding public transportation).

Let’s see, there was the creepy guy on my train that used to lean over my shoulder and comment on the articles I read – that was freaky, or the loud mouthed ladies that all sit together and complain about everything all the way to and all the way from work, the freaky fingernail lady that got on at Olney or the elderly cell phone talkers that think the people on the other end can only hear you if you yell into the phone.

Whenever I had to get somewhere, the first thoughts that went through my mind were: does the train/bus go there….is there a sidewalk….how close is the station to where I need to get…will it be safe…what time is the last train in case I stay late…hope I don’t miss the train…hope I get a seat…if I fall asleep, hope I wake up…etc. But those things never really bothered me, they were just a part of my lifestyle. My dad didn’t drive until after he was 50, so we always took the bus places or walked a lot when we were little and it was all very normal to me.

When I became a mom, I knew it was time. Time to put away the fear and learn to do it and that’s when I met Angel, my driving instructor. I can’t really put into words how it felt to learn to drive but the second I passed the test, tears came to my eyes. I felt like a silly kid at the overcrowded DMV in Northeast Philadelphia on February 11, 2012 as the instructor walked me up to the counter. I got to bypass the line and talk to the guy at the counter right away! I stood there all smiles as he inappropriately hit on me, I thought it was hilarious when usually I would get kinda mad at stuff like that. He was pretty old, but I didn’t even care! Then I went to get my picture and asked for a do over because I didn’t look as happy as I felt. The guy behind the camera didn’t care for me too much when I said, “I don’t look happy and I feel REALLY happy, can we take it again?!” I hopped out of there so happily that nothing could have brought me down. I held that little temporary license in my hand the whole ride home and walked through the door to my house holding it so tight. When I saw Sean and held it up and said, “I passed!!!” he smiled so big and I could tell how happy he was. I kissed our little boy, Brady, on the head and told him how I did it for him.

A major hurdle for me has been jumped. I am still in a bit of shock but ultimately, I’m in a state of accomplishment (if there is such a state) and I feel so proud of me. I’m not sure that anyone can/could really relate to my fear of driving. Most people looked so confused when I’d share that fear with them but we all have that one thing that scares you more than anything in the world and you will do anything to avoid facing it – not because you are lazy or stupid or don’t want to but because you are literally so fearful that it is almost crippling. For me, that was driving. I am so grateful that an Angel was sent my way.